Laid the first two blocks on the wall this morning.

Since it is technically Fall now, of course it has been stupid hot and hazy this week- record-breaking heat wave in northern New Mexico ( thanks HAARP 🙄 ).

I hand-made a small batch of mortar just to lay these two blocks.

I set posts and string lines to mark the wall lines, then used a laser level to make sure the two blocks were on the same plane.

I used a three foot bubble level to level the blocks themselves.

I only need to mortar on two courses, the rest of the blocks get dry-stacked, but the second course needs to be very flat, straight, level, and plumb.

I’m going to set all the corners first, just a single block, to get a base level line, then I’ll set the second course of all the corners - one block on either side of the first block, then one block in the other direction on the second course in the corner.

Required overlap of edges is 2".

Once all the corners are done, I just need to fill in the gaps for two courses.

Once I can dry-stack, I’ll get some help for a weekend and make a push to get the walls up very quickly.